Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 2 [Rostropovich and ASMF]

Accompanied by the Academy of St. Martin in The Fields, one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century, Mstislav Rostropovich performs Joseph Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Major for cello and orchestra, Hob. VIIb/2, Op. 101. Rostropovich also conducts the orchestra. The lead violinist is the greatly talented British violinist Iona Brown (1941-2004). A treasured violinist in her own right, she left us much too early.

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Paco de Lucia plays Abreu’s “Tico Tico”

One of the best flamenco guitarists ever, Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia plays Zequinha de Abreu’s “Tico Tico”, the best-known work of the Brazilian composer. Because of the lack of written tradition, Tico-Tico is played in various melodic versions all over the world.

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RIP Maria Radner and Oleg Bryjak

Maria Radner was a German contralto and internationally renowned opera singer. She died yesterday, on 24 March 2015 along with her husband and colleague Oleg Bryzhak and their infant son, in the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash, which occurred near Prads-Haute-Bléone, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France (the pilot deliberately crashed the Airbus A320). Her family and Bryzhak were returning from performances of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain.

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Franco Corelli sings Nessun Dorma [1958]

Legendary Italian tenor Franco Corelli sings Nessun Dorma from Turandot, an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, completed by Franco Alfano, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Corelli uses his great “spinto” voice to make a brilliant performance.

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Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 [Evgeny Kissin at the Carnegie Hall, 1995]

Accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Evgeny Kissin, the Russian-born Russian-British-Israeli classical pianist performs Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 at the Carnegie Hall Opening Night in New York in 1995. Conductor: Seiji Ozawa. One of the greatest renditions of the work, enjoy.

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